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May 9 – Last Goodbye

Finale Fail

It’s bad enough when a TV show you enjoy has been cancelled, but it’s even worse when that show isn’t given the opportunity to wrap up their storylines, leaving viewers and characters together in a dark void. I think a charity should be set up to fund series finale episodes for shows that have been abruptly cancelled or given their notice after a season has already been completed. Mrs. Sip has an even better idea, where networks should have to write into contracts a clause that allows any cancelled show one episode to tie all their loose threads together and end shows on the right note… or at least close to that. All this leads to the Top 5 TV shows that deserved a finale:

#5: Undergrads

After a short 13-episode run, Undergrads was no more, leaving a number of hanging storylines. Whatever happened with Nitz and the gang as they traversed the rigors of their undergrad education? Did Nitz ever finally realize his true feelings for Jessie? Shows that involve characters going off to college, should be given four-year contracts minimum to do a proper job on the experience. From time to time, there have been rumblings of a movie or second season to wrap up the series, but to this date, nothing has ever come of the talks.

#4: Boomtown

This critically-acclaimed series, showing each story through numerous perspectives, just couldn’t win over enough viewers and was cancelled abruptly, six episodes into its second season. I urge everyone out there to seek out the first season of the show (it was available on DVD at one point), for some of the most amazing storytelling you could find on network TV. I kind of wish they had kept the series at just one season, as there was some closure in that final episode. Instead, they went for season two (which was originally fantastic news) and changed their formula and cast a little. Then, they were cancelled abruptly and we all lost out.

#3: Titus

Everyone I’ve ever talked to about this comedy, starring stand-up comedian Christopher Titus, says they loved it. Despite that, the show was cancelled after three seasons and 54 episodes, apparently due to Titus’ refusal to split himself and girlfriend Erin in the storyline. I can’t really blame him, given he was still married at the time to the real-life Erin. The show sort of faded out, as a result, with no true resolutions. Starting in 2010, there were rumours of a new Titus series, which would have seen him divorced from Erin, his father having passed away, and Titus experiencing a new, normal girlfriend, but those plans were cancelled in 2014.

#2: Married with Children

Given its 11-season run and how much it helped establish the Fox network as a viable option to the “Big 3” (NBC, CBS, ABC) in the channel’s infancy, it’s shocking that the show was so disregarded and cancelled without any respect for fans. Sure, there was the reunion episode a few years back that went over the show’s history, but we still never got to wrap the family up and see them move to the next stage in their lives. Perhaps it didn’t need the nice neat bow on the package send-off that other shows require, but they didn’t even air the last taped episode in the proper order and instead, what is now regarded as the “series finale” is just an ordinary episode.

#1: Deadwood

The final episode of season three ended in one of the most anti-climactic scenes I have ever witnessed. With tensions raised sky high between the citizens of the Deadwood mining town and the despicable George Hearst, the end result was… absolutely nothing! Given that episode turned out to be the end of the series, it was one of the most disappointing viewing experiences of my life. There was an agreement to wrap up the story with two made-for-TV movies, but those never came to fruition and most involved with the show consider it to be a dead subject.

Super Saturday Shot Day: Last Goodbye

Others that may have made this list, save for movies or series reboots that were made years later, include: Firefly, Alf, Twin Peaks, Veronica Mars, and Gilligan’s Island, among others. Community was supposed to be the most recent TV tragedy on this list, cancelled last spring after already airing its season finale, but miraculously, it was picked up by Yahoo! Screen for a 13-episode sixth season.